Fumsup Playing Card
Circa 1901 playing card in an old photo development frame. But really we’re here to talk about the Fumsup. This fucking guy, amiright? I am, I assure you. So homie dates back sorta forever but specifically he’s a victorian through WW1 guy. The term Fumsup is a play on thumb’s up which Ridley Scott taught us comes from the Roman emperors or whatever. More importantly to this context it became a simple symbol of readiness in medieval Europe, specifically from archers supposedly. But what is this little dude. He’s a little baby with a wood head. Cool, all the information you need, thanks for reading. JK, his head is wood because we’ve been knocking on wood for apotropaic power for at least a thousand years before The Mighty Mighty Bosstones had anything to say about it.
So late 19th century soldiers pick up on this little guy because he’s just luck on luck on luck. They would wear tiny brass Fumsup pins with wood heads under their jackets so they could always literally touch wood if they needed to (don’t make any prurient jokes here weirdo). Those are rare because they’re small, the got handled a lot, and no one now knows what they are so they all disappeared. Enter this playing card. Not enough luck? Let’s add so many swastikas. Feel weird about that? Go read my blog, I have a lot to say about it. I don’t wanna get into it too much here but let’s also take a second to consider the idea of hella apotropaic motifs all over playing cards. For, you know, playing. Usually for money. Using symbols taken largely from soldiers. Who used them for killing and not dying. Humans are weird.
5”x4”x1”
Circa 1901 playing card in an old photo development frame. But really we’re here to talk about the Fumsup. This fucking guy, amiright? I am, I assure you. So homie dates back sorta forever but specifically he’s a victorian through WW1 guy. The term Fumsup is a play on thumb’s up which Ridley Scott taught us comes from the Roman emperors or whatever. More importantly to this context it became a simple symbol of readiness in medieval Europe, specifically from archers supposedly. But what is this little dude. He’s a little baby with a wood head. Cool, all the information you need, thanks for reading. JK, his head is wood because we’ve been knocking on wood for apotropaic power for at least a thousand years before The Mighty Mighty Bosstones had anything to say about it.
So late 19th century soldiers pick up on this little guy because he’s just luck on luck on luck. They would wear tiny brass Fumsup pins with wood heads under their jackets so they could always literally touch wood if they needed to (don’t make any prurient jokes here weirdo). Those are rare because they’re small, the got handled a lot, and no one now knows what they are so they all disappeared. Enter this playing card. Not enough luck? Let’s add so many swastikas. Feel weird about that? Go read my blog, I have a lot to say about it. I don’t wanna get into it too much here but let’s also take a second to consider the idea of hella apotropaic motifs all over playing cards. For, you know, playing. Usually for money. Using symbols taken largely from soldiers. Who used them for killing and not dying. Humans are weird.
5”x4”x1”
Circa 1901 playing card in an old photo development frame. But really we’re here to talk about the Fumsup. This fucking guy, amiright? I am, I assure you. So homie dates back sorta forever but specifically he’s a victorian through WW1 guy. The term Fumsup is a play on thumb’s up which Ridley Scott taught us comes from the Roman emperors or whatever. More importantly to this context it became a simple symbol of readiness in medieval Europe, specifically from archers supposedly. But what is this little dude. He’s a little baby with a wood head. Cool, all the information you need, thanks for reading. JK, his head is wood because we’ve been knocking on wood for apotropaic power for at least a thousand years before The Mighty Mighty Bosstones had anything to say about it.
So late 19th century soldiers pick up on this little guy because he’s just luck on luck on luck. They would wear tiny brass Fumsup pins with wood heads under their jackets so they could always literally touch wood if they needed to (don’t make any prurient jokes here weirdo). Those are rare because they’re small, the got handled a lot, and no one now knows what they are so they all disappeared. Enter this playing card. Not enough luck? Let’s add so many swastikas. Feel weird about that? Go read my blog, I have a lot to say about it. I don’t wanna get into it too much here but let’s also take a second to consider the idea of hella apotropaic motifs all over playing cards. For, you know, playing. Usually for money. Using symbols taken largely from soldiers. Who used them for killing and not dying. Humans are weird.
5”x4”x1”